1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of integrated circuits. More particularly, this invention relates to the distortion of the amplitude of a signal in order to stress test an integrated circuit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to provide integrated circuits with high performance data communication mechanisms, such as high data rate serial data communication channels. Within such systems, the ability to successfully overcome amplitude distortion within a received signal is an important performance parameter. In order to test the ability of a serial data receiver to cope with signal amplitude distortion it is known to use external test equipment connected to an integrated circuit to supply the integrated circuit with a signal containing a controlled amount of amplitude distortion in order to investigate how the integrated circuit copes with that amplitude distortion. The use of such external equipment is expensive, complex and comparatively slow.